Mom Makes Sure Her Son Is KVMR's Youngest Member

There wasn't any doubt that Odin Medeiros-Riley was going to become the youngest KVMR 89.5 FM member, since he joined three months before he was born in January.

That, of course, was courtesy his mom, Amee Medeiros, a KVMR volunteer broadcaster from the station's 2013 class.

"I've always believed in giving back to the community," she explained. "He's our first child, and I definitely want to teach him that principle."

So Odin joined hundreds of other new members who have made a recent financial contribution and become members of the non-profit, non-commercial Nevada City community radio station.

As for mom, right now, she's a substitute broadcaster and also appears occasionally on the Women's Collective show Monday evenings. Her next sub gig is June 5 on the Thursday Music Magazine (4-6 p.m., 89.5 FM, kvmr.org streaming).

Odin's father, Joe Riley, had actually started the process when he gave Amee a spot in the KVMR training class as a holiday gift.

"I had no idea I'd fall in love with it (radio) like I did," Amee said with a broad smile.

Her shows also have a fresher, different feel, perhaps because she's one of the younger broadcasters on the air.

According to Amee, the fact she was an only child has helped her on-air skills.

"As a kid, I'd record myself, I'd talk to myself, telling stories. That has made doing radio easier."

And because she's always been an Amelia Earhart aviator wanna be, she sees the radio studio as sort of a cockpit.

"It's like you're going into an outer realm," she theorized, "traveling through the sound waves."

Obviously, imagination is one of Medeiros' top assets.

In addition to being a mother, Amee has a fulltime job at the Neighborhood Center of the Arts, where she's worked ten years, the last six as executive director.

It's a non-profit arts program for adults with developmental disabilities. Samples of the Center's artwork will be on display at the Sierra Festival of the Arts this Sunday in downtown Gras Valley.

Before she was hired by the Center, she worked in a variety of special education jobs.

"At first, it wasn't the music that brought me to KVMR," she admitted. "But KVMR has been here as long as I've been here, and now it's the best hobby I've had in years."

Memorial Day Special

Music in the Mountains' special concert featuring "Songs of Peace and Remembrance" this Saturday night at the historic Nevada Theatre will be recorded for a KVMR broadcast Monday, Memorial Day Night, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. (89.5 FM, kvmr.org streaming)

The performance will feature a large chorus and small orchestra with a musical eulogy to Nelson Mandela and other music celebrating the spirit of Memorial Day.

A Strawberry In Their Cap

KVMR is making arrangements to broadcast much of the Strawberry Music Festival when it relocates to the Nevada County Fairgrounds September 11-14.

It will be the first broadcast of the festival on a fulltime radio station in the festival's 30something-year history.

(A weekly wrap-up of news and oddities about community radio station KVMR (89.5 FM, kvmr.org streaming), a noncommercial station offering diverse musical programming, independent news and provocative public affairs from about 180 volunteer "citizen-broadcasters." A video and other information about the station's new building is available at <bridgestreetproject.org> Complete program listings are available at kvmr.org )